Sylvie An Electric Trace. Release Date : October 25, 2005. Label: Smallman. Rating: Andy doesn't dig rating stuff. Sylvie, hailing from the prairies and sharing vocals between male and female... the angelic vocals are from Riva Farrell Racette. Semi-chaotic indie-punk stuff, with Joel Passmore's random cascading yelps taking most of the songs. It gets pretty edgy at times, like the ending of "Hit & Run" is filled with raging yells. Pretty interesting it's just the band's second album, despite being together for six years. In the interim, Passmore was part of Despistado, and Sylvie fell by the wayside until relatively recently. That boy-girl duel is the aural theme of the album it seems, as just about each song features that dance in some way. Good ol' Canademo. It reminds me a bit of an old band called Sons of Town Hall. "Syntax" is a super pleasant tune, with an interesting squalling in the background. Passmore's voice has an odd monotone to it, even though it isn't all the time necessarily, but it feels a bit flat much of the time... or maybe it's more the music that's making it so. And he comes in vocally at unexpected points which is a smidge disconcerting. Anyhow, it's fun, but a bit mediocre. I can see them swinging their instruments around now though... definitely energized. Song of choice : "Hit & Run" -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Sylvie website Published : March, 2006.